and because racial balance

ended, they are all black schools about white schools. the city has become re-segregated as have a lot of cities around the country that no longer buys a racial balance. so you've got residential segregation. segregation is still an evil. it still causes problems. people can't digest while a society. we are at our reach is what we have a diverse culture, when we have a diverse student body, diverse administration.

>> up next, charlene mires from 1944 to 1946. [applause] >> thank you very much. thanks for coming, everyone. let me say thanks to all of you. those of us who righted the research are dependent on a vast network of support in a public thanks to archivists,

historians, colleagues and trends in the editors and publishers who helped me on the journey that i'm going to be speaking with you about tonight. i want to start out by saying something you probably never heard, that it's okay to laugh. as a cartoon on the screen suggests, there are some laughable moments to the story that were going to be thinking about together today. some of it is going to start you have 70 anodized from advantage point. we think that the years 1944 to 46, the end of the second world war and hatred nation to peace. in the midst of the transition, when as many pressing issues for the road to face, story of a fantastic idea that there should be a capital of the world, a place that be the center for diplomacy, but a place that would house the united nations could be grander.

it might be its own identity, sun city or an expansive suburb. it might be that the world's fair for her b-day cake upon the fashion on this bp are convinced they get the impression people working team of the emerald city as they were thinking about the capital of the world in 1845. but this is the story we are entering an two. if they were to the capital of the world, where would it be? this is a proposition american cities and towns could not resist, including philadelphia, but also many others. no one announced a competition, least about the united nations, better race began even before the u.n. officially it is to come a race began to get the attention of the world diplomats and when the price of becoming the capital of the world. it was a race that said it

boosters trying to get attention for their hometown and a hometown and abrasive newspaper reporters who are covering the story, but in many cases often created the story so as to boost the campaigns for bringing the united nations to their own localities. the race went to san francisco, where the u.n. charter was drafted, went to london, where the u.n. met for the first time. it went to mackinac island where the nation's governors that there can't grants-in-aid and 45. he went to new york on which became the base of operations for the phrase searching teams who would determine the outcome. especially in the northeast and including philadelphia. also the sisters are pregnant or a race to win a price that no one had announced, the world's diplomats were on their own parallel track, a more deliberative chorus of

determining whether the balance of power would lie in europe or in the united states were trying to get an international organization off the ground in dealing with the serious issues of transitioning from war to peace all the while pacific boosters nipping at their heels. there are some serious lessons. the local, national and global identities are formed. it's about the wasted ideas in time and space changes communication technology changes, as transportation to elegy changes, but it's also a great story as the cartoon on the screen suggests that full of drama and surprise in a few comic turns as the boosters are racing to the world stage and is the world diplomats were trying to negotiate local politics and the american real estate market.

so should begin at the beginning come i'm often asked why he became interested in how i became interested in this topic. and so this is a story from the archives that begins in philadelphia at a time when i was researching an entirely different subject, although i came to discover it was an entirely separate. i was working on the archives of independence national historical park, going through news clippings, trying to assemble the hall. i came across this clipping. philadelphia home of the united nations from the front page of the philadelphia record in 1945. my only response was wide? i've met in philadelphia for a while and i thought i knew something about philadelphia's history. but this is news to me and i wanted to find out more. just remember to investigation, i found the philadelphia in

addition to san francisco was among the earliest and most assertive and longest lasting from editors for the honor of becoming the host location or the united nations. the inspiration was as you can see more clearly now, in dependent tall, which would seem by philadelphia and as an inspiration to the nation and therefore present to be an inspiration to the world. what better reason could there be to locate the united nations and put it within the vicinity of the cradle of liberty? i came to discover this kind of attachment to local and national history with an edited any of the competitors that came forward, offering themselves to be the capital of the world, often acting from a basis of their local history, which they saw as contributing to the

nation's history, which they saw as international significance. especially true of places with the colonial era to the american revolution impounded fathers. in addition to philadelphia into the race comes boston, morristown, new jersey, charlottesville and williamsburg virginia just to name a few on that basis. he received philadelphians looking forward to their future. holding the map of the city and if we could see the other side of the street, we would stand aging commercial district had yet to become independence national historical park. they are imagining the future will build from the past that word in place. i love to up at florida state they are seeing the future.

this was true of other cities as well. in detroit, that was another come editor for the boosters really saw the potential of the world capital is being a step forward from the city into the future. so this was intriguing and i read a little bit and histories of the united nations got a little and to the records of the organization and saw some references that there may be dirty to 50 of the self-proclaimed world capital competitors amassing enough to look a little farther. i came to understand there were many, many more appeared a greater variety of places in every region of the country and not only large cities that you might expect the boston, chicago, st. louis, new orleans, denver, san francisco, the smaller places i never would imagine would be in a contest to become the center of the world.

saint marie, court to ask the home of, oklahoma. i need to find out more about this. there were at least 240 localities that became involved in this episode to one degree or another by either making a suggestion or issuing an official invitation or embarking on a full-blown camp pain to make their hometown the capital of the world. so here i could see a wide variety of materials that would allow me to see what was happening in the united states in society in this transitional moment from war to peace. it would also touch on issues that were compelling, like how we developed ideas for the place, how that's related to local identity, how that makes us feel a connection to the

world. so as i was on my adventure in search for the capital of the world. one of the places i'd like to introduce into the conversation as a counterpoint to destroy philadelphia because it's also one of the earliest and most long lasting competitors is the black hills of south dakota. meet paul bellamy. paul bellamy is in the driver's seat. now he appears in some histories of the united nation and he and the interest of the black hills are the throwaway line. they are the shorthand for expressing the ridiculous claims that the american booster campaign went to. however i spent time in south dakota getting to know paul bellamy and his campaign and i came to have a different idea about this. this was true of a lot of the

campaigners they seem just a little out there, a little wacky to be on the list for the potential capital of the world. this was paul bellamy in 1936. you can see he's driving fdr on their way to a dedication of one of the carvings on mount rushmore. bellamy was the owner of a transportation come any. he often drove the celebrities to other sites and the reason that also organized tours for other visitors. he was a local booster of tourism and locally beneficial projects in the planning for not rushmore to the highway sustained through the hills if you've ever visited there, for the badlands national park. he was not the major player, but he was always promoting the cause of the black hills. so paul bellamy became so compelling to me that he became

the opening of the book for the capital of the world. i want to read it just a little busy you get a feeling for paul bellamy and the reason why the black hills of south dakota were a contender at least so far as they were concerned. during the second week of september 1944, the united states army air force delivered a telegram of tragic news to paul and lucy bellamy of rapid city, south dakota. just a few days later tater wedding anniversary, the bellamy's learned that their younger son, lieutenant paul herbert tony had died on august 26 in a midair collision 17,000 feet over england. 22 years old but in the late pilot of the flying fortresses. in flight, bellamy's group served a plane above them getting closer to close to their own ship. the engineer both raced towards the top.

impending to grab the controls inside the plane, but it was too late. the planes collided and exploded an herb and his copilot went down with the ship. half a world away in the physical remains his son, paul bellamy searched for channels for his brief. his thoughts raced over his son's short life. playful boy, the volunteer pilot training on the outskirts of rapid city. perhaps a partner business, bellamy felt compelled to document the moment to make sense of it to do something. immediately he sat down to compose a tribute to his son. he struggled to justify the terrible loss. what did it take to make those left behind stop and examine their priorities. how for the survivors be worthy of the sacrifices of their son and daughters? two months later we find paul

bellamy at the podium of his local chamber of commerce meeting for prep those same black hills issue an invitation to the united nation to bring its headquarters there to that region. it was a memorial act to his son and two others who died in the war. it was not as crazy as it may seem at first blush. it's also a story that speaks to some of the things that run through the book had a whole episode for the search of the capital of the world and that the generational story. pursuing beyond all reason although it's reasonable to them, i think of them as the pair generation of world war ii. people were born at the end of the 19th century at the beginning of the 20th at my world war ii, they are the civic leaders of their communities. many of them had served in war. for paul bellamy who served in

the philippines. many other served in the first world war, which was to be the war to end all wars. here they were in the 1940s, sending off their sons and daughters to another war and off it and made by their children. so they were very committed to stopping warfare, to ensuring peace for the future and support in the united nations as a way of doing that. there was a motivation for many to be involved in the race for the capital of the world. in paul bellamy's case, he was in the race. here he is in san francisco, sharing a cigar and not being one of the delegates to the u.n. charter conference. he also made its way to london, where the u.n. was first organizing. he was in the halls of

parliament. he saw this as another business proposition and nancy kept maneuvering and chatting with people, they would see the logic of his proposal. he was very serious about it, even though he was not always taken seriously by the news reporters covering this adventure. the competition grew. the u.n. was in the news a lot and with each wave of headlines came more competitors and i put this site back up to you in order to describe the way the wave hit the diplomatic world in the fall of 1945. i call this chapter a blitz because i think that's about how it felt to the diplomats. the competition to become the capital of the world, which no one had announced to reach london in the fall of 1945 at the bovard and of invitations that no one has solicited.

the resolution from the town board of hyde park, new york. a better from the chamber of commerce of july, wisconsin. promotional brochures had the island, petitions from oklahoma and suggestions from saratoga, donatello lansbury. bizarre communications opossum token passing lanes that were in georgia. south dakota and philadelphia. the capitals in september 1945, we propose locations by 13 in october, 17 november and 85 and december. a few suggestions arrived outside the united states, but most came from the american public officials, publishers, business leaders and individuals promoting their own home towns. the appeals became more and more elaborate. these are examples of the

promotional materials that landed in the mail and london. philadelphia is at this point still promoting its historic significance as its main appeal. you see chicago situating itself at the center of the planet. on the right, what san francisco called a brochure is clearly much, much more than that, the flight attendant sitting amid the crates of these headed off to one in. so here you see the promotion being built around this promotion. so this is growing and growing and growing. once they got to the diplomats in london, the response they received only encouraged more because diplomats are diplomatic. no one said no. no one said go away. the response was your materials will be considered by the perp

or a party set the appropriate time. if your civic booster, what does that sound like to you? yes come you're still on the manning, try harder. this is the spirit of americans at the time. having helped the allies win the war that they could accomplish anything if only they tried hard enough. so no one was giving up, even those such as the people from the black hills who really never stood a chance. they didn't know that because no one said no and they were in the game all the way. if there was to be capital of the world, what might it look like? not only did we have civic producers producing brochures, wheat architects devising plans with the united nations may become. this was the first plan created in san francisco at the time of the conference there and this is

from a newspaper so it's not very easy to see. but this reliance at the trial on the 1939 world's fair in many of these plants reflect the sensibilities to world affairs to their design or through their architects who had connection with world fairs or through their settings. some of them would literally on the way to world affairs. the other thing i see in these plans. i'll show you two or three more of them is a developing idea that a city, an existing place might not be the best location for a new world peace organization, that maybe it should be its own place. maybe it needs a more pastoral setting in order to do the work of peace. here's a second design of san francisco in marion county on the bad and here you see this is on the waterfront, the space-age

sort of design there. these are all visions of the future. but while the postwar world be like? this is chicago. this is northerly i/o from a peninsula near the downtown. you see the proposal for the world capital bill. what i find interesting is you really can't see chicago. because of the city is not very. there is an idea here that the peace organization these to be more peaceful surroundings. often proposals for islands. seabury, michigan. a similar design for niagara falls. these are border patrol souls to join the towns on both sides. so through michigan and the twin town in canada in the same

attacker falls. modern buildings come the symbolic traffic circles from both continents are part of these designs. back to her friends in south dakota. this is the design for the world capital of the black hills. what you are seeing here is a central tower structure and this looks like concentric circles, but it's actually a spiral to allow the united nations to grow and grow in perpetuity. here you see a small office structure for the delegation, which looked to me like a suburban cul-de-sac development. and the hills, there would've been villages for nationalities and straight through the middle is the world highway. the high rate that would allow you to driver in the world, which of course it goes straight through south dakota.

so this was their proposal for the black hills. philadelphians did not create an architectural design. part of the pictures were not going to tell you what to do. just please come here. they did recognize the idea of the city as the location was falling out of favor and they needed to change the idea of putting a closed independence hall, even though they did intend to create that expansive plaza there. so they moved their aspirations to belmont plateau. this is a current picture, which now i call the filibuster because it's all baseball diamond and you can see the city skyline in the background there and you could barely see memorial hall in the 1876 world fair also visible from this location. there's an additional acreage in

north philadelphia into montgomery county to put together as much a bridge as they could to try to entice the united nations to come to philadelphia. so here's a question. if you're going to put the capital of the world somewhere, how do you decipher the center is in 1945? among the diplomats, the debate was between europe and the united states. with the united nations being a traditional center for diplomacy of that is new to the united states to make a fresh start? the idea of center is a very transitional concept at this time. ideas are time and space are being transformed by transportation, communications technology. not everyone was thinking of it that way yet. interesting discussions heard

people talk about distance. other people talk about it in terms of hours in the hour distance was changing. commercial aviation is about to take off and for that reason anyplace could make the argument when they got their fabulous airport, they were going to be the center of the world that could easily accommodate the united nations. they make this point with maps as you see here. this is the black hills campaign in b.c. the concentric circles moving outward and you see the airplanes coming in from each continent. everyone can get to rapid city. here's a similar promotion from atlantic city, which is very assertive in the competition as well any see them connecting everywhere.

here is the st. louis promotion. bowdoin spring was decide outside of the city that they were putting forward in his tesco home, oklahoma, and again they are at the center in their offer in this modern structure and the airplane is arriving to bring the world and you can see they are measured air miles in order to show how accessible test, might be. it's another one of those stories that at first glance seems like one of the crazy places on the list, but there's also a richer story behind it. some of you might know someone was proposed to the u.n. as a place for the diplomats locate and make a statement about

social justice by being in the land of an oppressed people. so there's much more going on to the campaign they might appear. so there's all these promotions about air travel, how easy it will be, how swifter will be to travel to any location you might want to be the capital of the world. but then there is a wrinkle. boosters were boasting as boosters, but in 1945 come to 16 groups decided they had to go to london and person. here are philadelphians on the airplanes, getting ready to make their appeal to the united nations. one of the reasons they know about their trip is the cat a detailed journal now in the digital collections at the historical society of pennsylvania. i encourage you to go online and take a look because it's a

fabulous description. what i learned from the journal is it's really hard to travel from philadelphia to london in 1945. first of all, they may be on an airplane getting ready to leave, but they are not in philadelphia. they are in new york. you could not get on an airplane in philadelphia and slide 1945. i would come along pretty soon, but they had to take a train to new york and then wait for the weather to be right in may after day they would wait for a phone call to tell them whether the plane could go and sometimes they would get a phone call they could go in three minutes later be called off. at one point, one tried to the passage of the queen mary, thinking it would be faster to get to one and that would be to take the plane come of that they did finally fly. so did the mayor of chicago. so to the governor of

massachusetts and each one is a tale of adventure and difficulty and long, long journeys to get london. said they were going to have a hard time making a case about transportation. enough of them did get there that they force the u.n. to have hearings, pretty much to make them all go away. someone had to listen to them. it was a formality. the diplomats narrowed down the field fairly quickly and it was a matter of geography. if the united nations were not in europe, the europeans were determined it should be as close as possible and not meant in the northeast. they also determined that they wanted to be close enough to a major city in order to enjoy the cultural amenities and have access to universities and health care and the services.

they did not want to be so close to abuse assumed in to metropolis. there is still thinking of the capital of the world, vast amounts of land that would be their own. what you see here are two concentric circles. one around austin, so they decided to look within this radius of boston and within this radius of new york. as 80 miles out from new york on a line drawn in order to could hide park, the home of franklin roosevelt. but you notice another circle here 25 miles? they didn't want to be any closer. the conversation in the committee was three sentences. or not going any closer. new yorkers pushing hard for flushing the sake of the world fair in 1839.

the toxic philadelphia is in the loop, right? romp. they were shot to discover and they were not on that and they resent they were not on it is they were considered to be too close to washington d.c. the diplomats did not want the united nations to be within the influential realm of the national capital. philadelphians never thought of themselves as being close to washington d.c. we still don't. they didn't take it very well when they got this news from the united nations. they says hello mom, we was robbed rabid harasser claudio figure philadelphia again been unfairly treated by so they thought by the united nations. all was not lost. the loco and explain this

because as the diplomats looked for sites and they went to decipher the numbers are here, they did find a place that they liked. but if all the hundreds of communities that want to become the capital of the world, they chose one of the few that wanted to have nothing to do with it. they chose initially a site in fairfield county, connecticut, involving parts of greenwich and purses stanford. stanford wanted to write the u.n. and the dead, but no nice to people of greenwich. the united nations encountered so much resistance in that particular location in the two adjoining counties north of new york that they had to go shopping again. they went looking around at some want time contenders.

they visited san francisco for the first time since the charter had been there. they went back to boston and came to philadelphia to look at the site of the belmont plateau. this is very appealing. philadelphia had a great site for construction was available for free. this easy commuting. today you get to belmont plateau in about 10 minutes if you have any good day on the expressway. philadelphia cultural amenities, treated the museum of fire. it was such a contrast to what they're experiencing in the suburbs of new york. by the time the tour was finished, philadelphia was the

leading contender, the favorite choice. developers and the net. when i asked how close to philadelphia? the answer is pretty darn close. there were headlines in "the new york times." of ourse they hd their own booster committee and by this point the new yorkers led by robert moses and rockefeller had cased the u.n. to a temporary meeting place but they wanted the united nations to be. i miss prospect of philadelphia seem to be almost certain, a phone call went out to nelson rockefeller and if you know in a part of the story, that's the other fun part of tracing this out as we got the end. we just don't know how it got there. rockefeller got back from a vacation in there as quick

huddling in discussions about what new york can do the story you now is john d. rockefeller junior made a gifted $8.5 million to purchase a site in midtown, manhattan, which at that point was a slaughterhouse district. parceled together by real estate developer with the idea of building some e-mail along the lines of rockefeller center. there is option on the property and john d. rockefeller made the gift. because of that, that that is now the united nations headquarters. it's maybe not the capital of the world of everyone's dreams. the planner who supervised the architectural work referred to it as a workshop for peace. so it's not so grand.

it is a workaday place. i want to read a little pet projects and a feeling of how the story of the end of world war ii and the beginning of peace. it's a panorama of the area, but touches deeply into some chords in american culture because today capital the world survives is the slogan for new york city rather than a place of dreams. while traveling through darkness and connecticut, the search for the capital of the world could've been a movie. or perhaps it should have inspired a broadway show with tab dancing civic boosters, diplomats said cooking in circles and courses of anything you can do i can do better. i left my heart in san francisco in oklahoma. for the grand finale they could dedicate that orders the new york with a haunting rendition

of accentuate the positive from the 1940s were filled from here come the ways. looking back it all seems a little crazy, we lost touch with the atmosphere determination, hope anxiety that characterized american society at the end of the second world war. we forgotten the towns and cities and towns across the united states imagine themselves on the world stage and not just on the stage, but at its center is the stars of the show. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you. very insightful. we do have some time for questions if you'd like to don't have books, ask a lot of questions. and if you don't mind repeating. >> there's a microphone that

will come to you. >> did the u.s. government for the truman administration take a position not where it should be located? >> that's a great question. the united states government took a position of neutrality, which left it wide open door for all the local promotional committee said they would walk right through. the u.s. government, the state department had a good idea that the u.n. diplomats would opt for the united states the united states, was the most important thing. they wanted to give the u.n. a start and so they said let's leave decisions to the diplomats. so the diplomatic committees who came over have little familiarity with the united states and they were trusting the boosters to guide them along in the boosters are more than happy to do it.

they did come a point where they revisited the last group of cities, or the united states government to become more involved and did step in the final days to say the east coast is better than the west coast, but there is still fighting the decision go with the u.n. wanted it to go. thank you. >> why did they abandon the desire to be no closer than 25 miles to the city? was at the financial help they got to purchase one? >> yes. part of it was a financial issue at the suburban land in the first place, which was hugely expensive and i think these are people who would come up in diplomacy and the aged peerless i'm period were used to going places and taking what they needed to take.

landed fairfield and westchester county would've been very expensive, so that is a cost issue. they also became wary of the commuting. they really wanted to be in manhattan and was going to take them to want to get back and forth to the suburbs. they even dislike commuting from manhattan to queens and so they became more acclimated to the need to be in a city into vienna suburb and the new yorkers were skillful in first investing so much in renovating the world fairground buildings that they could say regarding best of these millions of dollars and so we should stay here. they managed to the rebuilding a sign that says welcome to new york. so step-by-step as the suburbs pushed the u.n. out come the new

yorkers are ready to catch them. so i say toward the last time come you could see they were willing to look at cisco. they were going to look again at boston. but it was the eighth plus $5 million that made at that particular location. thanks for the question. you need the microphone to come around. >> charlene, i couldn't help but notice they are pretty much weightman. did any cities the fact that he was already a diverse population of this multicultural as a sewing point? >> most of these multinational population does the selling point. one of the significant things as

they started bragging about the different nationality groups they have because look at the languages we could be. you can get great secretaries and telephone operators and everything you need for the organization to operate. the other reason to make that claim is the united nations had 80 determination they did not want to be a place for delegates may be subject to racial discrimination. so they drew a line at the mason-dixon line at one point and said nothing of the southern part of the united states is even going to be considered. that's about the prospect of racial discrimination. you could find that anywhere in 1945. at the point they did that, they had a whole wrath of competitors claiming they had no racial discrimination in their

communities. it builds over time. that's a great question. he needs a microphone. >> and research for your buck, did you come across information about the houston family wanted to bring the united nations to chestnut hill? >> that part of northwest philadelphia within the territory being eyed for potential housing for the u.n. and its staff. i'm going to cause slide to show you one of the historical society matsu saw flashing earlier. appear with the additional land they were the could not. they said sure, you can have my house, which is not always happen in the suburbs of new york. philadelphians are very skillful

in arranging that. i have not looked at the houston papers in particular, but i'm told there's good materials there. >> -- rockefeller in houston, you know, to big-money powers. i think i make some interesting reading. a retired plumber. i work in the area. >> thank you for that. thank you very much. it's a question in front. >> since were in philadelphia, i can't help but ask among the boosters as i mentioned that article you show at the beginning. william penn had been world peace in 1693 and it was a concept akin to what the united nations was to become. did the promoters mentioned

that? and was it the fact the united nations day shares william penn's new calendar birthday. >> they didn't make the connection with the birthday. however, from the beginning this reference to william penn as a world citizen. benjamin franklin in the same way. philadelphians are played in all their cars in her train philadelphia is a world place, which is a contemporary concern as well. it's an interesting echo for me. there is also another promoter who is promoting the area around pennsylvania, who is very persistent and his idea was all about william penn. he thought it should be intent living it, but not philadelphia. he thought that was not an appropriate setting for this

organization. so he pushed the area around media and brought a number of northeastern pennsylvania communities into the competition, each with their own proposal. places in the poconos came end in order to make that connection with william penn. it's interesting to me about a cartoon show philadelphia as william penn. to give out trying to be modern and historic at the same time. this cartoon speaks to that. u.n. diplomats are in the business he, flying on an airplane and philadelphia is saying goodbye and i suggest something about the perception philadelphia hatted itself and reasons why philadelphia got as far as it did in this competition. some diplomats would not have been really happy to come to

philadelphia. >> philadelphia's proposal was signed by mayor bernard samuel. at that time, philadelphia had a reputation for being incompetent and corrupt. but the proposal is terrific, just a beautiful piece of work. my question is how are they able to do a? to the city administration knew it or did others get together on behalf of the city? >> that clipping i found was the origin of the campaign. the publisher of the record kicked this off and every day in the newspaper is some kind of a manufactured story about how great it would be and how natural an idea it is for the united nations to come to philadelphia. an endorsement for this politician or that one every day

found something new. the mayor for his part had another idea the world war ii should have been independence hall. he pretty readily transferred that interest into this idea. so within a few weeks he had a big meeting of the politicians and the leading citizens of philadelphia in the mayor's reception hall to push this idea along. it is they are they decided they had to send people in order to begin lobbying right away. so there is this interesting coalition of newspaper people and politicians in the last phase of they talk about belmont plateau, the city planner had taken charge of that time. it went from being a set of mental reflection on the city's history to a very sophisticated,

statistical measured argument for bringing the united nations to philadelphia. it reshapes the image to the world in this space every year for the liberty bell and independence hall to belmont plateau in northwest philadelphia. thank you for that. >> continuing on philadelphia in that photograph of the city fathers are city leaders ahead into the future, is there any sense you have that independent national historic park is the prize? >> know, the idea. it's in the same area.

the idea for the park had developed between the first and second world war. some of the same people are involved in these ideas fit neatly together. a lot of american cities have been storing up great ideas through the great depression, the war, plans and ideas. by 1945, there were philadelphians, already lobbying for a state park in national park around independence hall. this will fit our plans, too. look how great this will be. the whole idea of the urban environment derailed, but the plans put forward for the park and for the national park. the same state and federal officials of the philadelphians are dealing with for the u.n. proposal were the ones who also were going to sign off on the

part. this interesting connections there certainly. >> charlene, just being aware of time is here, but to continue the dialogue. i'd like to thank her again for her presentation. [applause] >> where the conservative book local action conference in washington d.c. with author paul kengor of "the communist." who was frank marshall davis? >> frank marshall davis was born in kansas 1905, died and made you and 87. ended up in chicago and ultimately honolulu and that's

where he would meet a young man named barack obama in the 70s. he was introduced by obama's grandfather, stanley dunham. i should back up a little bit. he was african-american. he was a republican from the time of lincoln to fdr. remarkably what so far to the left that during world war ii he joined the communist party. he joined communist party u.s.a. a lot of american communists never joined communist party u.s.a. you literally sworn allegiance to the soviet union, and you committed yourself to a communist party u.s.a. caught a soviet american republic. so davis really went to the other side and after that ended

up editing -- he was the founding editor-in-chief of the communist party publication of chicago, the chicago star was a down the line pro-soviet pro-stalin publication. did that for two years and then went off to honolulu was a columnist for the record, basically the publication in honolulu. bro from 1849 to 1957. his writings were incredibly anti-american at the time. especially anti-harry truman because turbine was the president opposing stalin. frank marshall davis supposed the marshall plan, the nato he called the marshall plan colonial slavery, american imperialism, completely towed the soviet line 100%. was eventually called to washington that the democrats in

december 1956 to testify soviet activities. they then identified him as a member of the communist party and eventually would go on to meet and mentor a young barack obama throughout the 1970s. >> you talk about and mentoring barack obama. how is that a mentorship? >> great question. i had one source tell me he thinks them that weekly. i see david marinus says in his new book they got upwards of 15 times and i would imagine the source to be obama because i don't know where else marinus would've got that. i'm not doubting that. it could be. 15 times would be allowed. bill clinton says his mentor william fulbright.

they would meet lengthy, long periods into late evening together. obama in his memoirs refers to frank by name 22 times and then refers dozens of other time. that's a lot. run that reagan never refers to his mentor one time. hillary clinton in her memoirs refers to john john, may be a half dozen times. you've got obama mentioning frank quite often. >> what was this event? >> the entirety of the 70s. they were introduced in the fall of 1970 and not all the way through the time obama left in 1979. obama talks about one of the last words of advice he sought

out before you have to assert greater commercial davis, wearing into a diatribe against the american way and all of that. i founded davises columns for the chicago star in the late 1940s consistently bashing the american way in almost identical language to that which obama reported seen in terms for my father. trues her father came out in 1995. the audio dream in 2005, that book after obama's historic 4004 democratic convention speech, whereupon i began his rise to the presidency and the audio version in 2005, frank marshall davis is completely purged. he's not mention one time anywhere. you could listen to the audio

version and it goes word for word you come to the section on frank and it just skips. it skips ahead a few paragraphs come a few pages again and again and again. frank marshall davis because obama now and handlers and so forth no pleasant to for him to acknowledge the relationship with a man who is an actual member of communist party u.s.a. >> or political science professor. how did you become interested in the story? >> a previous book was called dupes on how the american communist movement deliberately sought out american progressives and liberals and lied to them. they would admit they themselves were communists. these these liberals and progressives that one of the american communists who never had added that he was a communist was frank marshall

davis. at a couple chapters on davis and dupes. as often happens, people said new information come you get more material and after a while i said that's it. don't....